you know, when i watch your videos, you always have this semi serious tone and face when judging the food, but when you were eating the bbq bare handed, you had this childlike happiness on your face. its great man.

Just want to say that I like the way that you don't try to hide your wealth but also don't flex it so upfront. It is grounded. You enjoy nice things but are immensely appreciative and also have a certain humility and respect for the work of others. It isn't "This isnt good," but rather, "it isn't to my tastes."

Whenever I feel like this concept might get old and that it will be an overload of fancy food you break it up by telling some stories of your trip or the staff or the owner. Love seeing your videos develop and good job keeping them both informative and entertaining

Highly amusing that the 3* Atelier Crenn receives a decidely subdued "meh", yet Busters gets a "F*cking Amazing". Maybe a side project of "Alexander Does BBQ"?

I love your honest, professional, but also genuine tone to all of these videos. No hyperbolic statements, a real interest in the places you go, and an unpretentious attitude towards these fancy looking dishes. Thank you for making these videos, looking forward to even more!

You are going to be a great ambassador for the food community in the coming years Stay humble, friend

The eyes lighting up after tasting the BBQ😅

That barbeque was so fucking good Alexander had to say it to make a point 😂

Man I love that you also include a small history lesson of the area with your videos, huge props to the whole team

This is one of my favorite videos in a while. The sharp criticisms that Alexander had combined with the gentle praises really brought home the idea that Alexander really is doing his best to review restaurants impartially. I also really love how the video is extended with food that is not *just* from the Michelin star restaurants. Seeing the food from the airplane and the BBQ at the end of the video was fantastic. Also that ending is amazing. Keep it up, I am excited to see the rest of the videos from California!

I've watched Alex eat countless $1000+ meals since I found his channel, and have never seen his face light-up like it did when eating that BBQ.

After watching your old videos too, I really appreciate how you present the wine and service along with the food, and not clumped together at the end. It really only makes sense and is the way to go. These videos are what makes the channel great.

One of your Best Alexander ! The BBQ at the end.... "it was fucking good" Spoken like a true American ! Enjoy the rest of your stay here. I'm in Santa Cruz, just below San Francisco. I've visited several of these restaurants. We've got it good here in 'Northern California', we really do. Thank you for highlighting this ! Subscribed for a couple of years, bell rung, and ... Enjoy !

I’m with you. The warmth and delightful personality of the pastry chef stole the show.

I don’t always agree with specific focus points in Alex’s videos but that’s because we expect a different experience from our dinner. But I do appreciate and respect Alex expertise and opinion very much

I love your reviews, Alexander. Your perspective is very refreshing and it's nice to see reviews that are not just honest but also constructive.

The professional reviewers I've found online are nothing but gushes of wonderment, but when I found actual customers, many of their reviews matched yours. The only "wonderment" in several reviews was that the restaurant had 3 stars. No dairy, and pescatarian only. To an outsider, like myself, this would seem like climbing Everest (even more so than normal) to get 3 stars.

Some of the techniques on display here are extraordinary - those cauliflower gold plated leaves... incredible. Thanks for bringing us on the journey. Looking forward to this California series - TFL was the restaurant that got me into fine dining, so looking forward to that one in particular.

i don't know why this channel doesn't have over 1mil followers yet... best food critic of the 21st century.

I'm glad to see more restaurants giving attention to non- alcoholic beverage programs, would've loved some detail about the juice pairing here.

Love the production, editing and story telling. Alex can also provide comprehensive reviews, be super professional in his analysis and yet still show his personality and 'fun' side when he needs. One of my favourite channels by far, which I've been following since 10k subscribers.

Your comment about Busters while wearing normal civvies put a big smile on my face. I like 3 star Michelin restaurants as much as the next foodie, but all that fancy food can get oddly monotonous after a while (both eating and watching). Would be great if you added restaurants that had Michelin potential or just very popular comfort food (as long as it was high quality). The research may be tougher and different but I think it would add variety to your videography. Also, you could do themed shows like your favorite steakhouse(s) in NY, Tapas in Barcelona, Teppanyaki in Tokyo - maybe even compare 2 of the best on the same show. As you know in every great food city there are dozens of great restaurants that do not have a Michelin star. I think viewers would be interested. I know I would be.

The format of these videos is incredible. Its Chefs Table quality but more personable. Love the history lessons / location introductions and the honest reviews. Look forward to more videos.

…stumbling on here has been such a treat. Your take on the finer things is quite candid yet ideally structured, I find very refreshing as too is the lovely pastry chef. I just love how you presented your experience at Atelier Crenn, oh the soirée of the staff is maddening but oh so American (Native of the Bay Area). In 2012 I had my folks have their 45th anniversary there and had emailed the staff regarding my father’s health and if they can arrange any non alcoholic pairings. They quickly replied and with no hesitation did a superb job. And Miss Crenn herself met them. So I sent her a thank you card with an an Oregon Pinot Noir from my friends Winery. She sent me an invite with my folks to her new Bistro Petit Crenn in 2015 and went in Nov and it was amazing. I sent her more wine as a late Xmas Gift of gratitude for giving my family a memorable evening with Dad for on Christmas Eve he passed. She is an amazing person and glad she is doing great but hot dang the total bill is far from my last visit with Mom in 2018

Great review as always. The presentations looks absolutely amazing!! .

Damn, your tailoring is always on point

Tacking on a 2% surcharge for health coverage to a $1500 meal is peak USA. But it tracks with a chef/owner having their waitstaff doing laps.

For those asking Tock is a website he used to book the restaurant it likely required him to pay a deposit hence the - $1000 off

I love the bits of history and storytelling in your videos. Great work!

The red flower in a field of snow is Chef Diana Zaldivar!

Best video yet. Love your comment with the BBQ!

Love that you take us all with you through the entire experience each time and the honesty. 💯

Alexander, you're on point about the service being lacking. Having dined in many Michelin Star establishments in Europe and in the United States, it just feels like the United States tends to have a much more mechanical style of service with more room for the service team to express their individual prejudices and attitudes - maybe it's a cultural/social thing. For example, your ethnicity, age, etc. are from my experience as being on the younger side of your average fine dining guest and being of Asian descent, are somewhat factored in and sometimes staff/chefs will act less friendly/hospitable to you based on some of those factors it seems. Three star restaurants in the U.S. don't have as much room for error like what I've previously described, but I've had some horrible experiences at many one and two-starred establishments where if the service is bad and you give a lower tip than what was customary, the staff would bat you with an side-eye or give you an cold attitude/demeanor, and at best the service in the U.S. is just professional and mechanical with little room for dialogue or conversation with the service team like what you experienced at Atelier Crenn. Although I haven't personally been to Atelier Crenn, the service is quite similar to that of Quince in my opinion, although everybody was respectful even if there wasn't much flavor to the service. I've found the best service I've probably had was at Thomas Keller's Per Se, and at Single Thread Farms. Meanwhile in Europe, almost all of the establishments I visited were not only professional but had flair to their service, which really made it stand out.

This native San Franciscan (now Sonoma resident) hopes you'll return soon, Alexander! Your station is THE BEST! Cheers! Craig

Never expected to see my house in Alexander's videos but here we are at 0:49 😂

Love that you visited the winery and gave us the history from it, thank you!

Great review Alex, you are really at the forefront on this platform when it comes to give great insights of high-end restaurants 👏 Keep up the fantastic job you and the team are doing 👍

Might be one of your best videos so far, great job! Looking forward to the next chapter in California.

Definitely the best subscribe click of the year so far for me. Keep it up Alexander 👍This series seems exciting. I bet we gonna see a lot of green starred restaurant in California, they got all the ingredients in their backyards. Also love the wineries and vineyards history bits, they should be in every videos 😄

As a San Francisco native, really enjoyed watching you enjoy this fun town 😊 hope y’all ate well and had a great trip

I just love your videos... They're like a calm moment between the fast videos and shorts here on KZfaq. Keep up the great work! 🙏👍

Maybe I’m not sophisticated, but that $30 BBQ would make me far happier than the $1500 fine dining/food science experience.

The quality of every one of these videos is so great, keep up the excellent work

3:06 LOL! Reminds me of my brother when he reach 21, he told me not to stop him from having his first beer 😂

that bbq had his face smiling bigger then i ever seen in any video

Thank you for your compliments! Glad you enjoyed the BBQ. Be sure to let us know next time you swing through. We appreciate you! ~Buster

Can't wait for the rest of this series!

Absolutely loved seeing some wine names that I actually live around in this video

My family and I had a similar experience at Atelier Crenn. It was good, as expected from a 3 Michelin star restaurant, but a bit underwhelming. No dish really wowed us. The deserts were also the best part of our meal though.

The creativity and artistry is second to none. Really appreciate creme de la creme

i really like your content. I just noticed that the music in this video, atleast in the beginning, was very loud. Keep up the good work!

I see a fly on table at 5:12 please take star away😂

Great video once again! So when are we getting the BBQ place review?

I never miss your vidéos now ahah Great ambassador for the food community. You really are our "inspecteur pour le guide Michelin" ahah

The KZfaq algorithm finally got something right.

Hope you enjoyed your tour of California, so cool to see content closer to home

The march of the Crenn staff would kill the experience for me- thank you for your honest review!

Those shots of the waiters walking around made me feel you were waiting for a subway

Nice one your video and impressions gave me the same feelings you explained . Just back from Barcelona where i visited a non stars restaurant and a high level rated restaurant and honestly the non stars restaurant was for me the better one . Grts

That airplane food. I wish I had such comfort when flying...

This is literally free consultation I wonder if any of these chefs or owners watch these videos for tips for continual improvement? On a separate note I love the thoughtfulness in these videos and the specificity with regards to what you like and how to improve some stuff. I wonder if you could do a video on 1,2 and 3 michellin star restaurants in the same type of cuisine or region to see the difference in what you get per michellin star

I've really enjoyed the concept of most of Crenn's food since I saw them on iron chef. Always fresh and innovative!

would be great to also get a more detailed view of the non-alcoholic pairing!

You eating the barbecue at the end was hilarious 😂😂😂

So happy to see you went to California! Cheers.

I've been eagerly waiting for this series to drop!!! Super excited to see the future reviews of restaurants in and around the Bay Area.

yo the barbeque lmaoooo you should do a bbq tour in the southeast USA!

"A red flower in a snowy field." - Also the perfect description of this channel compared to everything else on KZfaq.

When I add 1 plus 1 together I guess Alexander's restaurant is more of a hobby for him. His money comes from somewhere else. And evidently he has loads of it.

Finally you told us about the sweets ( desserts & Petit fours) ABOUT TIME!

Your criticism at 12:06 is very similar to a criticism I had dining at another California restaurant, this one with 2 stars, Providence. The service was very attentive, but they were constantly hovering, tried to take a dish or two away early, and we had two different servers ask if we wanted more wine back-to-back. It was also a more crowded/compact restaurant, and so it felt a bit overwhelming

Been waiting for this one!

I've never been to a high end restaurant but I agree with the service interrupting the experience. If you are not eating, you are likely having a conversation with your guests, which means they will always either ask you a question while you have food in your mouth or interrupt your own conversation. The only reason you want to talk to the server while eating is for a drink or if there is something wrong. Best case scenario you don't notice the waiter unless you want to notice them.

Thoroughly enjoying these vids

It's always fun to see others opinions. I've had the same menu and I very much enjoyed the dishes that didn't work for him. With service I completely agree. It almost seems like parody the way they hover over you.

Love to see shouting out the staff, from the people by the people

i love this format and it was nice to see you also eat normal people food and not just michelin star food.

Can't wait to watch this and look forward to where you are going in the area I call Home. Lots of stars to choose from!

I’ve been waiting for this for so long I can’t wait to see all of these restaurants. Keep up the great work and there’s a busters bbq close to where I live so now I gotta try it

Great resolution, Alex! I too disliked an event that is very mechanical and offers no room for improvisation, feels like there's no room for a soul!

I love these videos, but good Lord do they hammer home how much it sucks to not be able to do this kind of thing. Alexander is great, and the channel itself is informative, but, ya know, these are once-in-a-lifetime experiences for most of us.

An interesting California wine fact is that the winemaker for Chateau Montelena at the Judgment of Paris was Miljenko (Mike) Grgich, who went on to found Grgich Hills wines. Mike just passed away last year at age 100. His Grgich Hills Judgment of Paris Chardonnay is their effort to make a chardonnay just like the one that won for Montelena. Enjoy California wines, but don't limit yourself to Napa. There are many other wonderful AVAs in California. I look forward to this series of videos.

The hovering servers would have stressed me out too. Such a simple thing that people need to take notice of and inform them to be less like bee's buzzing around a honeypot and more like butterflies waiting to land softly...

100% agree about Atelier Crenn! One of the most expensive 3 Star Michelin restaurants in CA ($526 with tax and tip, not including beverages) and arguably the most meh-overthought and robotic. Beautiful presentation but lacking flavor. It doesn’t hold a candle to TFL which is warm, approachable, and steeped in history yet pushes the culinary experience forward.

Amazingly creative food. But maybe I'm not in the mood today. My friend made a paella in the garden today and it is simple and very good. I'm just probably not in the mood today since it was a sunday with dogs, kids and friends. Something simple is sometimes better.

Wonderful to see Chateau Montelena mentioned here. Bottleshock is a fun movie worth watching, thanks to the great Alan Rickman.

The staff being absolutely everywhere all the time would make me so stressed..

Got an extra guest at the table at 5.16 :D

What an experience for your godson! Always great to see your take on these restaurants!

really like the added travel content, keep it up :)

Thank you for doing this review! I live in the Bay Area and was waiting for you to do a proper review of this restaurant!

Love the videos. Always fun and well done.

I've heard from a lot of people that Atelier Crenn has become a prime example of a 3* that simply isn't worth the money, no way is that tasting menu worth $400+. A lot of SF places seem to take the mickey these days.

best youtube channel without a doubt

The definitive fine dining channel on KZfaq.

I was just thinking that the dish looked odd, and then you say the presentation wasn't to your taste.

u can never go wrong with Texas BBQ

the winery! i pray it becomes one of the finests in the world, congratulations!

Enjoyed your honest review where you weren't afraid to point out the negatives in your opinion. I wonder if there was a stop by the tenderloin...

happy birthday to your godson 🥳🥳